In this blog post, we will examine the definition and history of social media, its types and characteristics, its social impact, and its future prospects in turn.
Definition and Spread of Social Media
SNS stands for Social Network Service, referring to community-based web services that allow users to build connections and maintain relationships online. As the definition suggests, social media enables contact with a broad, unspecified audience and promotes networking with many people and the formation of groups, going beyond one-on-one communication. Above all, because it operates through the internet and mobile devices, it has a significant influence and has established itself as a vital means of communication across society. While research on the networks between people has existed for a long time, the rapid spread of SNS in the 2000s has led to active, multifaceted approaches to studying these networks.
The History of Social Media
While there is no single theory on exactly when or how social media began, interest in the issues of connection and intimacy between people has existed for a long time. A novel published in 1929 offered the insight that “the length of the chain connecting one person to another is short,” a concept that would later become known as the “six degrees of separation.”
Academically, Stanley Milgram’s 1967 study on “the distance between two people” revived interest in networks, and subsequently, these ideas were reproduced in games and online services within popular culture. Launched in 1997, sixdegrees.com can be viewed as an early social networking service (SNS) in the modern sense, but it ceased operations in 2000, and since the early 2000s, similar websites have repeatedly emerged and disappeared.
If MySpace, which appeared in 2003, was the signal for the full-scale revival of social networking, the services that subsequently reached their peak were Facebook and Twitter. Facebook launched in 2004, surpassing 300 million users in 2009 and breaking the 900 million mark in 2012. Twitter launched in 2006 and had approximately 500 million users as of 2012. At the same time, countless small-scale social media platforms and mobile app-based services continue to emerge.
Types and Characteristics of Social Media
Comparing social media to the human neural network is a widely used metaphor. Just as neurons exchange electrical and chemical signals, social media serves as a channel for conveying conversations and news between people. Furthermore, simple analyses classifying user tendencies are widely discussed. Some have likened the traits of constantly revealing oneself, the tendency to secretly observe others’ posts, and the inclination toward constant connectivity to narcissism, voyeurism, and attention deficit disorder, respectively, and have even explained these by arranging famous services in a Venn diagram. This analysis can be viewed as an intuitive classification that resonated deeply with users rather than one based on rigorous academic evidence.
Twitter is a form of microblogging that encourages immediate and concise communication by limiting posts to 140 characters (at the time). The widespread adoption of smartphones served as a key catalyst for Twitter’s growth, and the ability to follow celebrities and receive updates directly from them was a key differentiator from existing services. Retweets (RTs) are a feature that allows users to share specific posts with their followers, serving as a key mechanism for rapidly spreading information. Due to this virality, some analysts view Twitter as closer to a “news” platform than a social media network in the traditional sense.
Facebook began as a network within universities and expanded rapidly. Features such as “Like” and “People You May Know” facilitated connections between users and enhanced the service’s longevity. The “Timeline” feature evolved beyond simple real-time communication to serve as a space for accumulating personal history and records, while “Groups” and “Pages” are widely used as tools for community activities and corporate promotion and marketing.
In Korea, homegrown social networking services like Cyworld and Me2day established themselves early on. Cyworld enjoyed immense popularity starting in 1999 but gradually lost influence amid the global expansion of Facebook and Twitter. Nevertheless, community features designed for specific purposes, such as Cyworld’s “Clubs,” are still useful for sharing materials and collaborating among people. Me2day differentiated itself from Twitter with its 150-character posts and friend-based privacy settings, and due to its stronger network-oriented nature, it was often used in conjunction with other platforms such as blogs.
The Influence of Social Media
While early social media platforms were primarily used for building personal spaces and managing personal networks, platforms like Facebook and Twitter have gained much greater reach. The key factors behind this are increased openness and virality. Political influence is particularly notable; a prime example is the 2011 Seoul mayoral by-election, where a candidate’s Twitter communication gave rise to the term “Twitter politics” and is credited with transforming election culture.
An example of cultural and economic influence is Psy’s “Gangnam Style.” The song spread globally through social media and video platforms, surpassing 100 million views on YouTube in a short period. The resulting economic value is estimated to be enormous, and it also influenced the stock prices of related entertainment companies.
The Future of Social Media
Academic interest and research on social media are expected to continue expanding. Research on social networks is becoming increasingly active not only in science and engineering but also across the social sciences and humanities, reinforcing an approach that views humans as social beings. Some scholars point out that, as the expression “no man is an island” suggests, we must comprehensively study the social relationships surrounding individuals and their effects.
From a business perspective, securing profitability for social media remains a key challenge. At the time, Facebook’s annual revenue was approximately 10% of Google’s, and since the majority of its revenue (about 80%) came from advertising, the efficiency of converting its massive user base into profit was still considered a challenge. Many argue that for a new platform to be sustainable, it must find diverse revenue models beyond advertising.
There is also a growing trend toward closed or enterprise-only social networks due to security and privacy concerns. Enterprise social networks like Yammer and Chatter are already being adopted by many companies due to their high security and efficiency in internal communication, and the expansion of the enterprise market is likely to continue.
Conclusion
Interest in human networks has a long history, but rarely have networks been as visible, diverse, and influential as they are today. Advances in science and technology will accelerate this trend and enable a broader and more diverse approach to understanding people. At the same time, depending on how challenges such as the development of revenue models and the resolution of security and privacy issues are addressed, social media can evolve beyond a simple “network” to become a central conduit of society. Users will no longer be mere observers but active agents who directly experience and shape the evolving landscape of social media.
